Task force discusses Marcellus impact fee
Fayette County would receive $1.2 to $1.4 million from the impact fees that Marcellus shale gas drillers would pay under the state’s recently enacted Marcellus legislation, Act 13, the Fayette County Marcellus Shale Task Force’s legislative committee chairman said Wednesday.
Steven A. Walton, the task force’s legislative committee chairman, outlined the law at a meeting the task force conducted at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus on Wednesday.
“The devil is in the details,” said Walton, a Menallen Township resident and an attorney for a Pittsburgh law firm.
The law requires counties to agree to impose the fee by April 14 in order to collect the money, Walton said. If a county doesn’t approve the fee, at least half of the municipalities or municipalities representing more than half of the county’s population can vote to override the county and impose the fee, he said.
Fees go into affect when drilling starts, or when a well is spud, and remain in affect for 15 years. The state Public Utility Commission (PUC) will collect and distribute the fee and serve the arbiter that decides if municipal zoning ordinances aimed at the gas industry comply with Act 13, Walton said.
The fee is based on gas prices and will stop being assessed if a well is plugged or temporarily capped. The fee would resume if a well is uncapped.
Before any money is distributed to counties and municipalities, certain amounts of money will be given to state and local agencies such as county conservation districts, the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Department of Transportation and the PUC, Walton said.
Of the remainder, 60 percent will be distributed to counties and municipalities. That amount would be divided to give 36 percent to counties with wells, 37 percent to municipalities with wells, and 27 percent to other municipalities in counties with wells. Walton estimated that the county would receive up to $1.4 million from the fee, but didn’t estimate what municipalities would receive. The maximum that municipalities can receive is $500,000 a year or an amount equaling 50 percent of their prior year’s budget.
Walton said the law is clear about the fate of the remaining 40 percent. An audience member said that money would be deposited into a state-run Marcellus shale legacy fund.
The law allows counties and municipalities to spend the money on roads, bridges, sewers, planning career training for the oil and gas industry and saved for future capital purchases, he said.
However, the law trumps county and municipal zoning ordinances and allows drilling in all zoning districts, Walton said.
The law says local ordinances governing permanent structures on well sites can’t be more strict than those governing other industries and it does not restrict the hours when Marcellus facilities can operate, he said.
The edge of a well pad has to be at least 300 feet from any existing building and a bore hole has to be at least 500 feet from any existing building under Act 13, Walton said, noting that the property owner can waive those setbacks.
Walton said parts of Fayette County’s zoning ordinance do not comply with the law and municipalities have 120 day after April 14 to make their ordinances comply with the law they can’t collect the fee.
In addition, a driller can ask the PUC to review a local ordinance to determine if it complies with the law, he said.